Defends the National Association of Secondary School Principals volume "Guidelines for Improving SAT Scores" against criticism offered in the immediately preceding article. (IRT)

In agreeing with the College Entrance Examination Board finding that social disruptions during the 1960s were one cause for declining test scores, the author recounts some disruptions that she faced in her classroom. (IRT)

Minimum competency testing will help restore concern for cognitive development to the highest priority, and motivate teachers to teach more purposefully and students to work harder. A discussion of the kinds of tests to be used is included. (Author/IRT)

Based on the Florida experience, one should expect, among other things, new problems for minority students, lawsuits against the tests, calls for tests of teachers, and scapegoating and blaming. (Author/IRT)

Examines trends in standardized test scores since the 1960's. Reviews several factors that must be considered when assessing the significance of these trends, including changes in test-taking populations. Challenges common assertions concerning the extent and nature of test score declines and of educational quality prior to the decline. (PGD)

A four-year experimental study in Ireland to study the effects of testing yielded similar results to studies by the "Pittsburgh group." They found that test results are not very important to either central office administrators or teachers in making decisions about students. (Author/WD)

Congress should formulate U.S. testing policy to ensure that reliable and accurate data are available to policymakers, educators, and the public and that tests are used fairly without infringing on individual rights or imposing unacceptable social costs. Appropriate test use and continued research funding must be a high priority for agencies…

NAEP and SAT scores show U.S. schools are not necessarily declining, but they are struggling. Math and social studies instruction is still dominated by teacher explanations, quizzes, and textbooks; students remain unexcited by science; literacy levels are low; school children do much more TV-watching than homework or reading. A major structural…

Mandated, standardized national testing is being discussed as a means of improving education by holding schools accountable. Making schools genuinely accountable means involving teachers in developing assessment methods that measure what students know and can do. This approach ties assessment to instruction, improvement of practice, and the…

Summarizes the negative effects of high-stakes standardized testing, presents the national testing vision outlined by the National Education Goals Panel, and identifies curricular and technical problems needing resolution before the NEGP's vision can be realized. Negative effects include politically inflated scores, narrowed curricula, and…

Eliminating the Scholastic Aptitude Test for college admissions might seem a form of covert affirmative action. Although it is possible to design a workable admissions policy that excludes standardized tests (as 15 percent of colleges have done), banishing admissions tests to further a social-policy goal indirectly is unsound policy. (Contains 25…

Policymakers are placing tremendous faith in assessment, a technology with many limitations. Assessment-driven improvement policy uses mandatory testing to leverage desired change, but it narrows the curriculum, punishes teachers for things beyond their control, expands bureaucracy, and does not work. Alternative strategies for school leaders are…

Students are not numbers, and schools do more than just teach academic skills. In this article, the author offers some advice for helping adolescents confront the profound questions of life. The author's school, Souhegan High School in Amherst, New Hampshire, is a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools, an organization built on a shared…

At this moment, in school districts throughout the United States, initiatives are being launched to extend the school day, increase homework, integrate technology, and require more high-stakes testing. The assumption underlying these initiatives is that more and more--more time in school, more homework, more technology, and more high-stakes…

Engaging students requires giving them a say in what they learn and how they will learn it. However, in strictly disciplined, rule-bound schools with test-driven curricula, this cannot happen. Edison Schools, Inc., a for-profit Education Management Organization (EMO), and Confluence Academy, an Edison-run school located in one of the most…